Democratic National Committee adviser Cedric Richmond argued Thursday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that President Joe Biden canceling student debt was about “bringing this country together.”
Richmond said, “We as a country tell people all the time, education is the best way to lift yourself out of poverty. Then the cost of education is so high that it bars so many people from getting there. Then when they get it, we say that home ownership is the best way to transfer wealth from generation to generation, but they can’t, in fact, buy homes because they’re saddled with student loan debt. And so what we’re doing here is empowering people to continue to get that education, lift themselves out of poverty, free up money so that they can buy into the American dream of home ownership and have something to pass along. Those homes will need plumbers and contractors and all of those things. So, what the President always says is America is not a zero-sum game. Someone doesn’t have to do bad for someone to do good, and that’s what the President is delivering on.”
Mitchell asked, “What about the criticism from taxpayers who say, you know, I paid for my loans? There are some people who don’t want to extend that help to other people because they went through such hard times paying for college themselves.”
Richmond said, “And that’s what the President reminds us so much of in bringing this country together, that someone doesn’t have to do bad for you to do good, that everybody can do better together. And so, as tax breaks often help those who are doing well, this is going to help those who are fighting like heck to make it to the middle class and those people who have done what we asked them to do, go to school, get your education, invest in yourselves. And now they’re saddled with so much debt that it hampers their future, and we’re going to step in as a country and do what we should do.”
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